Sunday, November 18, 2007

We celebrated Cairo's birthday last sunday with a Winnie the Pooh themed party.

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She loves them though she can't exactly say the characters' names yet cos I've never actually showed her a pooh DVD or book. She fell in love with them after seeing the wall stick-ons at my toilet (her toilet has Strawberry Shortcake ones but alas.... no attraction yet). She refers to them as "Bear Bear (Pooh), Piggie/Chu-chu (Piglet), Taiiiiger (Tigger), Hoarsssss (Eeyore the donkey)" No amount of coaxing will get her to call them by their names, duh!

I ordered some cupcakes from cupcakemomma (super hot cupcake purveyor who has been featured on TV & magazines lots of times, I can understand why cos she is super creative) a month earlier.

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It was my first time trying em out actually and luckily the cupcakes were not sweet (my main worry), and when coupled with icing, just nice! Could be a little more moist though....

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Now comes the tough part. I decided to DIY the stand myself after seeing the whopping price tags at several stores. I must say that I am sorta proud of the foliage hehehe. It is about the only original idea coming from me at that party.... everything else I sorta derived, innovated, frankensteined, mix n matched from various party websites.

The cupcake toppers (the ones sticking out of the cupcake, be it the characters' heads or a sign) were all hand made by moi a month earlier, while watching TV. I would not recommend any last minute attempts as they are crazy-time consuming!!! Material is cheap - stickers, wrapping paper cut-outs, construction papers, toothpicks, double sided tapes - but like my family pointed out, my time isn't :p

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What? A baker mommy mentioned on her blog that "Happiness is Homemade" and that line has stuck in my head ever since. Well I can't bake 80 cupcakes by myself, so I felt that I should at least do SOMETHING.....

The best part about having cupcakes? All the kids were so much more excited at getting to choose what they get! Some even came back for 2nd and 3rd helpings! I ordered 2 sizes - regular 5.5cm diameter & mini 3cm diameter - and the mix were just right for guests who were a) on diet hence only taking a smaller portion or b) would like to have more than one / taste the other flavour (chocolate or vanilla) without feeling too guilty about the calories later :D Best of all... no cutting, easy distribution and every piece reached the guests' hands nicely.

I am lucky that the cupcake lady agreed to cater to my whims and fancies (I must've changed my orders 5 times in all! All via email, of course) and agreed to all sorts of different colours (to represent each character). She didn't even charge me more for that. Come to think of it.... looks sorta like harlequin xmas hor? :p

The kids came from different age groups (between 2 to 7) so it was tough to come up with games. In the end, they did some colouring and balloon fishing (they made the game up themselves... sorta like trying to stick escaped helium balloons from the ceiling using otehr balloons n sticky tapes :s)

I must remember to scan the coloured pieces... I added a short message to the colour pages like "Happy Birthday Cairo! Love, from ______" and it was like a personalised, handmade card from the kids to Cairo! So heart warming....

Friends would remember this from Cairo's earlier days. Her inflatable pool. I decided to fill it up with ice and packet drinks and have the guests "fish" for what they wanted! A real hit with the kids! Especially since it is so much like ice fishing.... good thing an adult is always standing by it... or else it would be like the old Heineken advertisement hehehe.

This is supposed to be the table laden with kid's food. But due to time constraint, I had to scrap some of my more wacky garnishing ideas :(

We love these fried bear stuff.

The star ones too!!!

Other than the finger food, we also had cold chicken pasta (Aunty Cheryl's recipe), fruit n vege salad, jellies, mixed fruit cups for the kids, fried spicy meehoon, curry chicken and braised seafood noodle. I was told that the latter 3 - cooked by my ex-chef of a mom, were the fav of the crowd, but too bad we didnt get a snap of the food. My bad.... I forgot to bring my camera! Whatever pics you're seeing here was taken by Aunty Cheryl (muaks, muaks!!)

Cairo had a wonderful time chasing balloons. I had about 30 of em on the floor for the kids to play with. Not many survived the party though, the older boys were kinda keen on "hunt & destroy". Oh well, so long as they're happy....

Hmm.... I have been teaching Cairo how to sing the Happy Birthday song and blowing the candle for days before the big day. My effort didn't go to waste :D

Now, let me express my heartfelt thanks to the following people:

Daddy - for playing driver throughout the day

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Cairo's very pregnant Aunty Karen & Uncle Marcus - for helping to collect the cupcakes from an address nobody knew how to go to..... and for buying the ice :p

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Cairo's Aunty Alex & Uncle Jordan - you 2 are the best helium/ normal balloon blower I have ever seen

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Grandma Foon - for the help in the kitchen since 9am in the morning (party only started at 1.30pm)

.Cairo's Aunty Cheryl - for coming all the way from KL and helping in so many ways to make the party a success: the food prep, deco, photo taking etc etc etc.My Mom, Ah Mi Por Por - for being such a good chef.And last but not least, all my poor relatives who had to help tidy up the hall at the end, hahaha!

thank you folks, for the wishes & blessings to cairo, not to mention such kind praises for her mommy hehehe

big pumpkin: heheh thanks, caught quite a lot of tips from the david tutera show n online websites also la :D too bad i'm not in KL or else can doubel up the party as tiny blogger gathering also eh? kekeke

jasmine:thank you, yes quite smoothly but not enuf time... rushed like mad. next time will prefer to do early dinner parties instead of lunch :p

jazzmint:hehehe, with careful planning, i'm sure we can do an equally kickass party for darling faythe dis jan too... i'm so excited bout it oredi *rolled up sleeves n rubbing hands toegther*

mom2ashley & mama of 2little fellas:thanks girls. i thought of giving the old pool another spin... been collecting dust in d store room for ages oredi hahaha. hehe i caught the cupcake fever from jazzmint lor :p

happy happy belated birthday cairo!!! you are soooo lucky to have a big big birthday party! i wish i could try those teddy and star thingies (unless of course they are made of pork then cannot la). have a lovely year ahead.

Happy belated birthday to Cairo, the party is super nice and the food & cup cakes too. It's really impressive and am sure it'd leave a good memory for Cairo. I will refer here for ideas if I'm going to do a party for my kiddos next time.

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I share a blog with Mommy cos I'm too busy to create another website(growing up is a daily affair and it requires all my time and attention!). So, if you see "Cairo Says: ..." on the title of a post, it's written by me :D I'm sorta like her blog's "Feature Writer"! Click here for Mommy's take on my appointment though :p